Recent advances in DVD players have resulted in several useful features for consumers, security systems, and video production professionals. One of the more interesting features that has arisen is the “zoom” feature. Using the zoom feature, a viewer can select a portion of an image and scale that portion of the image to virtually any size. For example, a viewer could pause the playback of a DVD and select a region of the displayed image that includes the face of a particular actor. The viewer can then scale that region and position it in the center of the display so that the actor's face is enlarged and centered on the display.
Unfortunately, with current zoom technologies, the actor's face cannot necessarily remain as the center of the zoom when the video playback continues. For example, as the actor walks across the screen, current zoom features do not automatically follow the actor's face. Instead, the zoom feature remains centered on a single region of the screen regardless of what may or may not be in that region. Consequently, as the video play back advances, the actor can walk out of the zoomed-in region, and the viewer will lose the close-up view of the actor's face. If the viewer wants to zoom-in on the actor's face again, the viewer must restart the zoom process. That is, the viewer again needs to pause the video playback, select a region around the actor's face, and select a scaling factor.
Obviously, forcing a viewer to repeatedly acquire and reacquire the same image only in different video frames greatly reduces the attractiveness and usefulness of the zooming feature. A viewer would prefer to select an object, such as an actor's face, and stay centered on that object as the video playback advances. That is, as the actor walks across the screen, the zoom feature should automatically track the actor. Because no current technology satisfactorily addresses this issue, a system and method are needed to assist a viewer in tracking an object during video playback.